And welcome back to the truth in this art, your source for conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee. Thank you so much for joining me. Today, I'm super excited to be in conversation with 2 guests. They are the creators of Pixelfest, a dynamic short film fest in Washington DC that spotlights young, talented filmmakers.
Rob Lee:Please welcome Keith Dukes and Tony Diallo. Welcome to the podcast.
Keith Dukes III:Thank you, brother. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
Tony Diallo:very much. To be here.
Rob Lee:Thank you for coming on and for spending some time. And so, look, you're gonna you guys are gonna keep me young. I think, cumulatively, your ages combined is almost my total age. So I'm I'm just trying to stay in. You know?
Rob Lee:It's just like, yeah. I'm still cool as I put it in. You know what I mean? Try to hang on. But to kick things off, like, could you both and we we'll start with you, Keith.
Rob Lee:Could you both, you know, introduce yourselves and, you know, share a bit about was it Pixelfest? How how that came to life and sort of, you know, the the vision, but let's start off with the introductions, and they will move a little bit further. So if you will.
Keith Dukes III:Short and sweet. What's up, good peoples? I am Keith Duke the third. I love videography. I've been in the videography community since 20 20.
Keith Dukes III:Before then, I was on some other stuff, but if we met since 2020, you know that I just I just love the game and, try to get back. So that's what Pixelfest is for and what we're gonna talk about today. But, sure and sweet. That's just me. I'm a pass it on to my guy, Tony.
Tony Diallo:Appreciate it, Keith. Tony D'Ala here. What's going on, everybody? Pleasure to be here. I'm a lacrosse player, pretty much.
Tony Diallo:I'll be honest with you guys, play lacrosse and, you know, Keith here is is a very close friend of mine. I consider him a brother. And, you know, he came to me with a with a passion and a dream and asked how I can help. And, that was through the back end stuff, through the business. And, you know, that's how it came to be through Pixel Fest and making it happen.
Tony Diallo:So, yeah, it's a little bit about me.
Rob Lee:Thank you. So for for folks that are undeped, uninitiated, what are what's what's Pixel Fest? Tell them tell them what it is.
Keith Dukes III:It's a great question, bro. I I love it asked about Pixelfest. Overall, it's really just for a place where people can get their start.
Tony Diallo:Yeah.
Keith Dukes III:And by start, I mean, artistically, cinematically getting your start. Like, if you have second guess, you keep second guesses about your audio, your visual, editing, directing. This is a place to get live critique. It's not in a such a professional and serious setting. It's a we're gonna make it professional for you.
Keith Dukes III:We're gonna put it in a great space to show your art. But Pixelfest in general is just for people to test run what they believe is their best work at the time, and they wanna get better through petite. So that's where all it is, brother. It's just a nice place for people to, what's the word? Find a community.
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Keith Dukes III:And at the start of it, you don't have to go so deep in the community, your journey in the community to find it. The pixel fest is the start, so that's what we want.
Tony Diallo:Of course. Yeah. I think I think, a big focus for the festival, big big big focus for Pixelfest was the inclusivity of it all. You know, we would want anyone in there, everybody in there. It was it was a cool experience to to do it at the theater we did it at because we were able to interact with all walks of life and, you know, got all walks of life telling us, alright, next time we'll we'll we'll pop on by.
Tony Diallo:But, you know, a big focus is making sure, you know, everybody and anyone can be in there and it was, really powerful to see, you know, all demographics, you know, laughing at the same scenes. Right? Laughing at the same scenes, getting involved. It it was it was amazing.
Rob Lee:So and and thank you. So we're we're coming off of this was the festival was recent, and this is what the first installment, second installment. Give us a little bit of those sort of, like, details. And where was that theater at? Where was it based at?
Rob Lee:Give us those details as well.
Keith Dukes III:Some details for you. It was at Landmark East Street Cinema. And y'all heard Tony's intro. He's a humble guy, but I don't have a mind for business. So Tony found the location.
Keith Dukes III:So Tony talked to the people.
Keith Dukes III:I I took a back seat in terms of finding the location stuff, but, shout out to Tony. We got Landmark E Street Cinema. We locked it down for September 5th, which is literally just over a month ago.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. Just over a
Keith Dukes III:month ago. So great location. I think that's one of the things we wanted to promote was the officialness of it all, the professionalism of it all. So we're planning to keep it in DC professional events. It can even be in Baltimore.
Keith Dukes III:But, it was really good just because it felt real and it felt official. Do you got other details, Tony? I know that job was it looked pretty nice.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. I mean, it was it was it was special. As far as detail goes, you know, that that's pretty much as as Keith covered. I'm sorry. Could you repeat the first part of your your question besides
Rob Lee:Oh, sort of the, sort of the proximity. You you guys were in DC. It was about a month ago. Right? Yeah.
Rob Lee:And, just sort of, like, you know, having having everything, like like, come together. I guess that's what I'm, like, sort of, like, driving at some of those, like, finer details before we get into the nuts and bolts of everything.
Keith Dukes III:Oh, great. Yeah, bro. Rob, I can honestly say that we took it one day at a time. Okay. We couldn't even start.
Keith Dukes III:I think the first start was, putting a deadline to the work. You know? We decided September 5th, and we shot a commercial for it. We had no submissions. We had no participation.
Keith Dukes III:The only pea 2 people that believed in it are me and Tony.
Rob Lee:So on this podcast? Yeah.
Keith Dukes III:On this podcast, around June before June, it got conjured up around June. Just the idea. So it it really was an idea, and we took it day by day. What's it called? Post by post.
Keith Dukes III:Again, Tony's a humble guy, so he's not gonna say that he made the post for each of the pixel fest promotions. Meaning, like, he's done the graphic design, for each submission, for each director, even the submission links. We all learned it this first go around because this was our first film phase. I can't say we've ever done it before. Yeah.
Keith Dukes III:But the officialness of it really surprised us just because the details came day by day.
Tony Diallo:100. Yeah. I think, you know, added on to that, like, it's just it was learning process for us. So everything was new, and it had to be like, alright. Next one.
Tony Diallo:Next one. And, you know, from the jump, I think that establishment of accountability was, was really key. You know, if, if, if I wasn't able to let him know what's going on or that this needs to be done and vice versa, this wouldn't ever happen. And that sorry. But that that that respect was also very key, you know, between, you know, 22 men, like, you know, respecting each other, but he being able to hold each other accountable.
Rob Lee:And that's that's a really good point. Like, when collaborations come together and, you know, we have, like, different visions, and I've been in some collaborations. I've some that have gone well, some that have gone not as well. And, it's sort of that being, I guess, equally yoked, having that that that respect and that sort of that that shared vision ultimately of, you know, I do this, you know, and sometimes, you know, you have someone that's like interested in certain pieces of it, but maybe not share that or maybe they're really good at certain facets of it, maybe the business side of things, but it was like a film or podcasting. Sure.
Rob Lee:But I'm I know this side of it. It's like, how can we operate in that way, and what does communication look like? But that initial conversation around sort of the vision, and then how do we build from there and then having those because you guys are friends as you as you touched on. Good friends, close friends, brothers, if you will. Sharing sort of that step by step, you know, day to day of, yeah, where we at on that?
Rob Lee:Uh-huh. So being able to check-in and have those conversations with each other, make sure that you're in alignment as that clock is ticking towards the date.
Keith Dukes III:Yeah. That clock. The clock was coming. You
Tony Diallo:know? Yeah. I mean, that that accountability was key. And I think what's important is it wasn't just like over the phone. It wasn't just FaceTime.
Tony Diallo:Like, you know, we were we were going into the gym, like, between sets, talking ideas out, you know, you know, getting getting getting, you know, you know, we talk about what's stressing us out right before the gym. Go in there. We come with a plan. We get it done as a team. We get out.
Tony Diallo:That sort of business, and, you know, we always check-in with each other. Like, I think that's really key, like, nowadays, you know, checking in and just making sure, hey, bro. Are we good? Are we good? You know?
Rob Lee:So so hold on. So hold on. What I what I'm hearing there is, like, in those rest periods, it's like, yo, you didn't know the PPR, bro. You kinda you kinda tight right now? What's what's good, man?
Rob Lee:What's stressing you, brother? I'm hitting those weights really hard. You know, those sort of, like the rest period is like, yo, bro, just just take a second now, and I got something on my mind about the fest.
Keith Duk:About the fest, bro. I'm telling you, Rob.
Keith Dukes III:Well, I say I'm telling you, we were stretching. And before we started, like, Tony and I would just debrief because we were locked in. But we just debrief debrief about, look, moms, pics, pixel fest, girlfriends, just life, brought jobs. And when it came to the festival, you know, it's crazy setting a goal in the gym and also setting a goal Mhmm. For the festival.
Keith Dukes III:Because it's like you you have deadlines, and the gym is a metaphor for life. So you we hit a a weight this day. We're trying to hit it the next day. So you have to constantly set goals. And I think a lot of people forget to set those goals.
Keith Dukes III:Not a lot of people a lot of people forget to set those goals, daily. So I think that's the only one of the few reasons that we decided, helped us get there, as Tony has said, because it seemed like a lot. If you looked at what we had to get done, it seemed it was a lot, but daily, we could deposit something. 100%.
Rob Lee:And I I feel you on that because, like, you know, as a person that's done the gym thing for the last, like, year consistently get up super early, 5:30, do the run, do the weights, do the thing. And, you know, it's sort of those it's an endorphin hit for 1, but also it's sort of like I've accomplished some things. So what I'm looking back as to what a production cycle is, I was sharing a little bit before we got we got started. I'm like, yeah. I got this many episodes left.
Rob Lee:We had this much slots left versus Yeah. You see people, they get behind and they get bombarded. And especially when you're working towards a goal, and as you guys are describing, we're definitely let's we're we're gonna talk about it a bit deeper in a second. But when you have, like, this is the date, this is what we're doing, there's a lot of space in between. So what are the milestones?
Rob Lee:How do we get there? And the other thing is is collaboration. You're working with you're working with your man's, and it's just like, this thing fails, you know, if this thing doesn't go well or, you know, do we have sort of that that ability to be honest with each other when something's falling through the cracks? Because, you know, there are times. It's just like, yo, the goal is this.
Rob Lee:And sometimes people get really caught on the goal, and then it's like, I don't care about your feelings. We gotta get this thing done. And being able to work in this, like, a mutual respect and this, like, shared goal and shared vision and all of this just baked in, you know? So moving moving into this, so talk talk a little bit about, like, you know, that initial conversation. Like, there's a what I was hearing was sort of this altruism that's there of like giving folks sort of the shot to to understand, like some of the finer details and putting together production, putting together film, getting that critique.
Rob Lee:Why was that of of interest, for you, like, and why was that a thing that kinda brought the 2 of you together to say, you know what? There's something here. We we you know, this is something we can help folks on. We can see folks' films. We can help them kinda move their film to that next stage and get better.
Rob Lee:What what was the what was that initial conversation? What was the the reasoning and the drive behind that?
Keith Dukes III:From what I remember in my own perspective, I'm sure Tony's gonna add on to it. In order to find out what was already there, we got something there, just to have it solidified. I think I personally was catching up with Tony. I was telling him things that I feel like the game was missing. And by the game, I mean, the community, the the the come up.
Keith Dukes III:Like, what I was missing when I was coming up in videography or I wasn't exposed to, I wanted to be I wanted it to be more accessible. So I would share that with Tony at the gym or via phone. Just whenever we could link and, you know, having somebody that is close to you that you've you could collaborate with. He he just really expanded my mind on, the possibilities rather than just an idea. So, you know, sometimes you really you need to speak on one of those ideas before going out and doing them because I initially was like, alright.
Keith Dukes III:Ninety people, maybe we can do it. Tony had bumped the number up from 90 to 240 tickets. So I was like, Tony, it's our first one. You think we're gonna sell 240 tickets, bro, realistically? And he was like he just had to remind me that there there is more to the dream than I had thought.
Keith Dukes III:Because what I what I was thinking, there's just the the idea and there's doubts. So, those those are my initial thoughts. Just thinking about what the game needed when I was coming up and then trying to get back.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. As as someone who's not really an artist, like, I I very much appreciate the people who are, like, to to be vulnerable and put themselves out there and put in the time to to work on and create something out of nothing. Yeah. Where where I found, you know, I guess, a kick out of it was seeing those people have, like, have that drive. When we when we had our panel, it was amazing to hear how most of all all these directors were motivated to do this again and and create more films and the adrenaline and feeling they got from it, you know, to see their films on on the big screen.
Tony Diallo:You you know? So and one of those directors was another close friend of mine. I've no. I was friend him and I have been friends for 11 to 12 years now, Bennett Gokie. And for me as a as a friend, like, grow growing up with him, you know, built boosting each other's confidence growing up.
Tony Diallo:You know? The getting him to put his film into this this this festival wasn't easy. You know, I define him a little bit, but, you know, afterwards, he was he was he was glad. He was he was like, thank you. You know?
Tony Diallo:And that's that's I think that is I think that's what we need more of. Like, in hindsight, what this was what all this came around was, like, community and pushing each other in the right direction. Motivating each other the right way to to follow our genes and take that leap of faith sooner, you know, not wait 20 years and say, wish wish I could've. Right? Take that leap of faith.
Tony Diallo:Do it now no matter what what anyone might think or say. And 9 times, you're you're you're your own toughest critic.
Keith Dukes III:Right? Right?
Tony Diallo:That a 100%. Right? So take a chance. People are gonna love what what you have what you have to share.
Rob Lee:Oh, thank you. I always I always think of the reps. Right? Like, again, the the the the, you know, gem and all of that. But, you know, so do the reps of it's just like, alright.
Rob Lee:We're gonna grow from this first one. We're gonna grow from this this next one and just, like, where we at moving forward from there. And going back, one of the things I I wanted to, you know, touch on, and definitely wanna touch on a few of the numbers, like how many, like, folks, you know, pulled up, how many, you know, directors and filmmakers were were a part of it. But the the thing that I'm curious about is sort of that other piece on collaboration, I find that in my experience, because I'm this I'm more of that very big, like, we can do all the interviews. We can do 700 interviews this year.
Rob Lee:And I need some like, yo, you should do 50, bro. Like, what are you thinking?
Keith Duk:Yeah. You send a little input.
Rob Lee:It is just like you need someone to try to try to not necessarily put a governor on your your your creative, like, output and your intent, but hope sort of focus it and much like a laser, you know, in a very specific areas. Like, maybe it's not 700, obviously, but maybe it's sort of, like, you can do a 100 and it has to have this sort of through line or what have you, and this is why, and having that sort of trust. What what was that like? Like, which one of you is more of the here's the grandiose idea, and which one of you is like, alright. Let's bring this down a little bit.
Rob Lee:You don't have much difference to sit down.
Keith Dukes III:Yeah. It was
Tony Diallo:it was definitely in between. It was a healthy mixture. I mean, it it, I think I think since it's it's Keith's idea. Right? So for me, I was I was doing my best to listen.
Tony Diallo:You know, I was always like, you broke the if you have an idea, tell me what it is. You know, let's talk it out. Let's hear it. Right? And, you know, we take it to how big it it could be, and then we go from there.
Tony Diallo:We're like, okay. Maybe we stay up there. Maybe it was.
Keith Dukes III:Rob, you should have seen this, bro. When we would when we would hit a goal Yeah. Like, both our minds would just
Keith Duk:think of it. After yeah.
Tony Diallo:After we hit that, we're just like, what are we thinking? Like, why didn't we set it higher? So then the next goal, we're like, alright. Set this up there. You know?
Keith Duk:So But it would be stress. It'd be like, how did it go? Yeah.
Rob Lee:I know. It it has that thing of, like, you know, again again, if the the the sort of comparison, the gym thing is just like, man,
Keith Duk:you know, I'm
Rob Lee:feeling real good on this bench right now. I feel like I could do that 350. It's like, you sure?
Keith Dukes III:And we're competitive. Like
Keith Duk:Very.
Keith Dukes III:I'll I'll I'll go first or Tony go first. Most of the time, I'll ask him, do you wanna set the tone or do you want me to set the tone? Like, before we even start because, you know, I could set it, and you could do something less, but I'm I'm not gonna I'm not gonna brag about it. I'm gonna let you hear about it. Like Yeah.
Tony Diallo:You're gonna let me hear about
Keith Dukes III:it. I'm like, hey. I I worked harder. I did more. I deserve whatever comes after.
Keith Dukes III:Right. So that's the same attitude applies to the pixel fest. It was like, alright. We're on the same team now. So how can we put our minds together in terms of the competitiveness?
Rob Lee:It's the the iron sharpens iron sort of approach. And, you know, when like, I I I see. We talk about competition. Right? You know?
Rob Lee:And I I I think there are times where it's just like, yeah, it's It's not always sort of that. It's not always sort of like competition. Sometimes it's just like competition in that direct sort of sense. It might be, I think we can do a little bit more here. I think we can bring this up here, and I think we could take this to this level.
Rob Lee:And it's just like, Yeah, I know you could do that. You can hit that. And that's kind of what those conversations is like that friendly competition, especially when you're you're collaborating. It's just like, Oh, we can push that. You know what?
Rob Lee:We'll do 3 weeks of a festival. You sure, bro? I think we can do it. I think we got it. And you need to have that that sort of energy, like, that's for me, one of the reasons why I had a collaboration that kind of broke.
Rob Lee:I was just like, dog, you you can't, like, diminish the thing that we're both working on. And it was just, like, openly, like, kinda it kills the energy. It's gotta have that sort of positive thing. You need to be an evangelist for yourselves and for the project you're working on. So what was there a moment where maybe you didn't vocalize it, but you were feeling like, I don't know.
Rob Lee:Not sure. I'm not sure where we're going with this. It's a little hard.
Keith Dukes III:I I really think after each goal, bruh, like, we've had a conversation just because after the first it it was all new. Like, planning was new. Me dealing with somebody else doing business, which is Tony. Like, Tony handling business was new. And this is something he wanted to do, but I we both had ideas of what we wanted to do, and we both were competing to actually fulfill that.
Keith Dukes III:So I was pushing him to fulfill his business side, his ideas, his goals. He's pushing me to do the art direct, push the vision. So it there were times where I felt like we didn't necessarily butt heads. And tell you, correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't think we butted heads. But I can say we, we debriefed after each goal.
Keith Dukes III:We're like, okay. What's how do we handle this adversity? How do we where do we go from here? We didn't even get on each other when we wouldn't, achieve a goal. Like, I can't say we hit every goal.
Keith Dukes III:So you can't. There were some things that we set. We we didn't hit. There's something Tony told me to do. It It took me 3 weeks to do.
Keith Dukes III:And Tony was knocking assignment after assignment after assignment. I was like, bro, life is lifing. I'm so sorry. And it's it's cool, to to have that grace and do it with somebody that is, like, your brother and your friend. It helps with the collaboration.
Keith Dukes III:I've worked with people that, you know, it's hard to even have that conversation. As you said, you had that conversation with, the person you collaborate with collaborated with. So, and the fact that it made it easier if I could talk to Tony. That's the that's the hardest part for me. It's the conversation or bringing it up.
Keith Dukes III:I don't want to step on anybody's toes. You know? So, what do you think, Tony? You you feel like we was we was seeing eye to eye the whole time?
Tony Diallo:I I I mean at all. Definitely. No. I think I think we saw I I most of the time, like, every time, honestly, like, after goals, it would be that that that hot moment of, like, you know, relief, but what's next? Like, is this it?
Tony Diallo:You know, kind of kind of feeling. But, you know, there are even times where we just didn't talk to each other for a few days. Just but just break. You know? And and then the next day, we're we're just like, how you doing, bro?
Tony Diallo:How we doing with this? We're right back there. Yeah. Yeah. But it wasn't like it wasn't any, you know, animosity where we've been.
Tony Diallo:There's no time for that. Right? There's, you know, how you doing? You good? Alright.
Tony Diallo:Awesome. Like, this what's going on? Where are we are we meeting to talk business? We get in the lift. There are times when we lift and we just we look at each other.
Tony Diallo:Look, bro. I don't have it in me today to talk about this. I just let's just, you know, do some curls, some crunches, get what we need, and then let's kill it tomorrow. Right? Those those moments of just checking in the breaks and everything like that was was very much needed.
Tony Diallo:And there there are points, I think, more towards, like, the middle or end where, you know, Keith felt like the he needed more assistance, and he he brought in a, a wonderful, wonderful addition to the team. Her name's Katia Simpson. I believe that's her last name.
Keith Dukes III:Oh, yeah.
Tony Diallo:And there was a moment where where there was confusion, where I thought, you know, alright. Is Katia owning some of these roles? And I I asked Keith, and it was a clear cut conversation. There wasn't there wasn't, oh, me waiting a week and then coming, hey, man. I I thought that that I was supposed to it was Keith.
Tony Diallo:Look, man. I'm your best friend. I don't want this to affect our relationship. Yeah. Pixelfest is your dream, your vision.
Tony Diallo:If you feel like this is the person that's right for the job, I'll step away because this this is this is yours. I'm here to support you. And Yeah. That comes first. So, you know, there's that moment and that clarification of, bro, we're good.
Tony Diallo:You know, let's keep doing this moving forward and created something beautiful. So just have that conversation.
Rob Lee:That's that's really important. And, I mean, frankly, you know, like, as I was talking about, like, that's literally the very situation that we didn't have that conversation because I wasn't aware of it because I'm down for that conversation where this whole podcast thing is is is my thing. And, you know, if you're collaborating with someone, you're working with someone, you you got a cohost, and it's like, yo, we're we're doing this. We're a package deal. And so the public thing is there, whether it's like, hey, we're doing podcast festivals or, hey, we're we're going there as a car, a property or, you know, is is a brand or whatever the thing may be.
Rob Lee:But then it's like this sort of subtle sniping and so on. And I'm like, yo, I didn't even know you in a match right now. Yeah. I'm, you know, you you throwing what you think or, you know, haymakers. I'm over here not even jabbing because I don't know we're in the middle of a fight and
Tony Diallo:Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Lee:Part of it is it's just not being able to have what you 2 did have. Being able to to have those check ins and have that sort of understanding and that sort of, like is that professionalism, frankly, and that sort of you have a goal, you're going for it, and this is how we're gonna get there. And us doing it together is is is one of the key parts of it. So in in bringing it together, I'm really, really curious about this. So let's say it's a week out.
Rob Lee:You know, we're, like, we're we're let's say not even a week out. The month of September rolls around. What's the what's the feeling like? And give us some of the numbers too because I'm still like, I wanna get the number of, like, who how many directors are involved, how many knows all of that stuff. But describe that feeling leading into it as like, yo, because, yeah, you know, college.
Rob Lee:Right? This is like man, I didn't I didn't I didn't, study for that exam at all. I was like, well, we're here. Yeah. Dog.
Rob Lee:They they fall out now.
Keith Dukes III:To the to the t, like, I'm I'm gonna give some quick stats. I know Tony guy. Tony is I'm telling you, he's the business dude, so he got his own. That's right. So I I can say this.
Keith Dukes III:Month of September comes around. The goal is 240 tickets. We have 12 sold.
Rob Lee:What percentage there, Tony?
Keith Duk:I don't know. We have 12. We have 12 sold. And me and Tony still go to the gym.
Keith Dukes III:And we're over here like, so,
Keith Duk:how how are we gonna get these these tickets, bruh? Because we we invested.
Keith Dukes III:We invested some money into a project, into a vision. It's our first one. 12 people would thank you. To those 12 people, thank you. I know I know them all by name.
Keith Dukes III:But we were like, okay. How can we make an adjustment now? How can we get tickets sold now? So I can honestly say that when you study for a test in college, you you feel a certain level of security until you see that first question. Like, once you see the first question, you either think you studied or you didn't.
Keith Dukes III:So it wasn't until we put it in a little bit more work and didn't look at those 12 as, like, the final. We saw that as a great start. We told people that believed in this. So we took it from there, and it just came down to us talking to our directors in terms of promotion. Because when you promote, a film festival or art, I think you gotta invite people to your journey.
Keith Dukes III:We're telling people, hey, this is the first. So we're telling people to bring their moms, bring their dads, bring their brothers, bring their sisters, bring people that you want to support you because posting on Instagram is not enough. Bringing it up and catch a conversation is not enough.
Tony Diallo:You really have to go out
Keith Dukes III:there and just sit and say, hey. This is an event, but my work's in here. Yeah. So once we had that conversation, with the oops. I'm sorry.
Keith Dukes III:Once we had the conversation with the directors, it went it went so smooth. And we really bumped up the numbers, solely off the Baltimore crowd and some of the directors because they I think we opened their eyes to what we were saying. Like, hey. Invite people into your journey. They started posting out flyers, hand them out, and the numbers spiked.
Keith Dukes III:I've I can honestly I can honestly say before September 3rd, we we stuck at 12 tickets. But 4th and 5th, we we skyrocketed to 116.
Rob Lee:Wow. That's a huge jump.
Keith Dukes III:It's a bro. But we've been promoting for 3 months.
Rob Lee:It's I I think sometimes and I'll let you chime in in a moment moment there, Tony. But I think sometimes where when you're trying to plan events, and I've tried to stretch what this is into other sort of areas that are of interest. I mean, that feel real, like whether it's doing movie nights, whether it's doing live podcasts and so on. I find like when you give people a little bit too much time, it easily falls off or there's not that investment. And I think you guys were solving that sort of investment thing of using the folks involved as, like, in lack of a better term, foot soldiers, spread the gospel.
Rob Lee:We we got this popping. And I think that that helps. And there are times where, you know, I've done smaller and in Baltimore, but smaller, like, sort of movie nights, and, you know, it might be 1, 2 tickets sold. I'm like, alright, I gotta bump this up. Marketing background, throw it out there, and Marketing background, UMBC?
Rob Lee:Right. And then there are other instances where it's just, like, almost gotta accept it. Almost in this role of acceptance. I was like, well, I know I wanna do something cool. I don't know what they doing.
Rob Lee:And that's that's what it is.
Tony Diallo:So so, Tony, what was your your your POV here? Yeah. I mean, exactly that. I just remembered looking at him and I'm like, hey, man. How may how may you take his soul?
Tony Diallo:And he's like Was that even a number
Rob Lee:in exhale?
Keith Dukes III:I was like from him for quite some time. I was
Tony Diallo:like And and I was like, alright. Let's alright. Let me just let's get to work. Right? Let's get let's get to work.
Tony Diallo:So, you know, you might have seen me look in here. I was just trying to make sure I had all the stats, but it was a 116 total sold, a 105 attended. We had 7 walk ins, who saw the flyers, appreciated it, and bought a ticket, came in and watched, the the submissions. Our goal was for 10 total. We ended up having 11.
Keith Dukes III:That blew my mind.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. It was it was great to to to have that made. We were also concerned about that. You know? Are we gonna need to extend it this?
Tony Diallo:We ended up needing more time, honestly, for the event. 33 hours wasn't enough, which which is which is which is incredible. You know? And 3 hours in a movie theater and people full of energy, lively, you know, energetic, interacting. It was great.
Tony Diallo:And and we had 4 different genres. So it was really powerful to see the, you know, the like mindedness, but also how different each one was. Like, each documentary was. It was beautiful. Just each it was documentary reflection.
Tony Diallo:What were the other 2 keys?
Keith Dukes III:Comedy Yes. And drama.
Rob Lee:Yes. And
Tony Diallo:all of them completely different in their own way, and I think that that was also another thing. You know? They're putting out their first film. They're thinking, oh, you know, someone probably already done something like this, Or Yeah. This looks similar to something else.
Tony Diallo:Each one was everyone has their own style. You know? Every every director had their own style, which was which was great to see.
Rob Lee:Going back to this this one question, I got 2 more real questions be before we go into those rapid fire, but I wanna touch back on one thing. One of the things I noticed, like, earlier when we were talking as far as, like, for lack of a better term, I paraphrase, sort of this almost this lack. Like, something was missing in terms of, like, other festivals, what their output was, what that scene looked like. Was there sort of a festival or sort of a community of filmmakers of, like, younger artists that either of you had in mind and sort of building out, like, okay, we want to do what they did. Maybe we can take from theirs and maybe sort of put our own spin on it.
Rob Lee:Because I I have this concept I play with called Maya, most advanced yet acceptable. And it's like you wanna do something that feels new, but at the end of the day, a sandwich is a sandwich. It's like I got a different slice of cheese on there. You know what I mean? So maybe the bread is different, but ultimately a sandwich is a sandwich.
Rob Lee:Was there a festival that that came to mind or sort of a community that you look at from a, you know, sort of creative or even from a business standpoint? They're like, we can do this as sort of the foundation and then make it very much ours and be able to grow it as we move along.
Keith Dukes III:Yeah. That's a that's a good question, bro. I think I I I know that the the idea really came from, witnessing one of the directors I have reached out to. He inspired me to make the film festival just off of his work alone. Like, he had his name's Gabe Gabriel Platt.
Keith Dukes III:He had a submission in a 48 hour short film festival. I I wanna say the year prior. Mhmm. I witnessed his work. That was my first I wanna say first film festival I went to.
Keith Dukes III:So just seeing just seeing the layout and seeing, the submissions and the organization, especially on 40 hours, it it's a very makeshift type of film festival, but you can bring it to different cities. So I I like the setup of it, but it wasn't till I witnessed seeing somebody put their work out like that. After doing 48 hours of footage and editing. Yeah. It was it was real cool.
Keith Dukes III:And I got his contact information after that. And I can honestly say from the interaction on, I was solely focused on gathering people that made me passionate about my craft. Just because I'm like, this is this is my community. Like, I know we're all part of a community, but when I first started, I'm like, who can I talk to about this stuff? Who can I meet?
Keith Dukes III:Like, I really wanna meet people that are doing it and really love to do it because they're gonna encourage me to keep going. And it's kinda hard to do that when people see you and they don't share information or they wanna gatekeep. Because, you know, I have to show myself, through my craft, but it's kinda hard to do that. But I did see it in Gabriel. Gabriel is selling in me.
Keith Dukes III:I got his contact information. And all the directors I had, assigned to Pixelfest throughout the submissions I had met in the field Mhmm. Or I had met through the submission process by a lot of them. I wanna say at least 9 out of the 11. I had a friendship with through, going freelance videography or, I met them just, like, through growth, like, through friendship.
Keith Dukes III:I like, me and Tony had played lacrosse before. I met them when I was a lacrosse player. And Yeah. You know, I got to level with them as an artist. So it's it's really just meeting people in the journey, and I wanna solidify that for Pixelfest.
Keith Dukes III:Because what stood out for us you know, a sandwich is a sandwich, but what made our sandwich pretty cool was the fact that it was youth based. Yeah. We took some time to think. Me and Tony Tony and I, we took some time to think. We're like, how can we promote this festival, as by new?
Keith Dukes III:Like, how can it be attracted to people? How can it not be swallowed up by the DC film community? Yeah. So this is a start. Like, we won't this is our start.
Keith Dukes III:We wanna just keep sharing the start for other people. It just felt motivated because when you when you submit to PixelFed, you should leave how people left our first one, which is, hungry. They want some more. How can I accomplish my goal again? Because that feeling I had that night was amazing.
Keith Dukes III:Seeing people edit and then put their work on a movie screen for the first time, I don't think I'll get sick of seeing people's reactions to that. So, really just creating that environment, the start, and it really came from personal connections with the directors and that 48 hour film fest that I have went to. Just seeing somebody else put their work out when I was scared.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. I don't wanna add too much because that was that was perfect. But, from a business perspective, I wanted people to walk out saying, dang. When's the next one? I wanna come back.
Tony Diallo:That that's so from the from the the first week, the first, you know, hearing about it, I was like, that that needs to be the goal. There can't be if, ands, or buts to that. That has to be you know, it was great. Like, we had a hard time getting people to leave. People were hanging out, talking, coming down, congratulating the directors.
Tony Diallo:You know, we're like, listen, guys. We need you to leave.
Keith Duk:You gotta get out of here. We're gonna be fine.
Tony Diallo:We need you to leave. So that was a great moment for us. But just having that that mindset from the start of, you know, putting myself continues, like, to always try to put myself in in the shoes of the audience. You know? What what what would make me come back?
Tony Diallo:What would make anyone come back? And and and implementing that to the best of our abilities.
Rob Lee:That's that's that's really dope. I I love that. I love hearing some of the reactions and the and the takeaways because you have time removed to get that retrospective because when you're in it, and even the the weeks after you're in it, just like, man. But having time removed from us, like, we did that. This happened.
Rob Lee:This went well. And, you know, you know, I I feel you, so I love that. And I want to move into this this next and this last questions last real question, which is almost a good segue to what we were just talking about there. You know, I'm putting you guys on the spot here this next question. So so what do we have in mind for for this next one?
Rob Lee:Because, you know, they say when, you know, literally the planning for the next one happens the day after the planning of the last one. So what what's in store? I know it's a lot of planning, a lot of conversations, a lot of protein shakes and and and curls.
Tony Diallo:Oh, Jesus.
Rob Lee:You know, between now and then, but what what do you what would you like to see? Yeah.
Keith Dukes III:Can I honestly say so, usually, it starts day after, but I I took 3 days to relax?
Tony Diallo:I'm not even gonna lie, bro. My throughout
Keith Dukes III:my journey, I celebrated for 3 days. As you should. And yeah. And I was hype. I was hype.
Keith Dukes III:I felt I felt it after, but I celebrated for 3 days. And once I finally got my head around what's next, it really wasn't until the last week of September. Just because I had to get back in routine. I had to get used to not playing Pixelfest. But the next step is actually not Pixelfest.
Keith Dukes III:It's the next step is actually an art walk under, Pixel Neon.
Tony Diallo:Okay.
Keith Dukes III:Art walk is gonna cater to the really just the expansion of the word art in that community. So you can be poet, you can be a painter, you can be a drawer, you can be a vendor. We wanna collect those people, and under one roof to promote their work. Once we give them that platform, we're gonna promote the 2nd annual Pixelfest, which is gonna that that art wasn't be in May. But the 2nd annual Pixelfest will be September 5th next year, and it will be promoted at this second event.
Keith Dukes III:This first event, but the 2nd Pixel Neon event, called it's not official, but Pixel Neon Art Festival, basically. Right? We just want people to get a hand what's it called? We want people to get a real life invitation. So I want a conversation.
Keith Dukes III:I want people to feel like this is a personal reach out. Because that's what sold tickets. Online, it did pretty good. People saw the commercials, but hand picking people to sell the tickets to, having a conversation with them, that's when everybody came to live. So we're gonna create another event, under Peso Neon name, which is the art walk, and they will promote the second, which will be the same time next year.
Keith Dukes III:So just gonna start earlier, like, you know, while on adding on top of the game, while upping the score.
Rob Lee:Yeah. Yeah. If you're gonna include a little podcast stuff, then that'd be great as as well.
Tony Diallo:Oh, yeah. No. You've got talent. Stars. Lord.
Tony Diallo:No. That's right. There's plenty of talent there, bro. Come out. Put the table up.
Rob Lee:No. But I think it's I think it's really good to to have that plan and have those sort of, like, the diversification of it and and thinking through, like, alright. Celebrate the wins and then figure out, like, in essence, using the sports thing. Look at the game tape. You know, this is, you know, what we have and how can we sort of build off of it?
Rob Lee:One of the key things that I heard there a second ago is the personal invite, you know, in a world where we we don't do that, as much. Like, I I remark to people all the time doing this podcast. This is, quote, unquote, a media outlet. Right? And as I shared before, I got my tentacles in a few different places, right, that, you know, this this thing will go up on.
Rob Lee:But but you'll have people who come on, you know, share their story, all of that good stuff, and then they don't even don't even share it. You know, don't even put it out there, and it's like you're shooting yourself in the foot. And my thing is, you know, I can't do every piece of it. It's just more of a time thing. But I find that when I reach out to someone in a personal way, the really big high level guests, I take referrals and I look at those referrals like this matter.
Rob Lee:This is a referral. Right? Like, this is a thing that matters. Whereas, when I bring in someone who reaches out and it's just like, alright, bro. What are you talking about?
Rob Lee:What's your your thing about? It's like, I don't know if it fits. So when you have that sort of personal connection that hurt friendship throughout. Right? Once you have that there, you know, people are rooting for you.
Rob Lee:People are rooting for you to win. And I find that that happens when those personal connections are there, like the CXC thing I was talking about, the comic cartoon thing I was talking about. Mhmm. The main conversation that came up in after parties and between buying comics and talking comics was this notion of friendship and community within this comic scene. And that scene can be changed to any scene, fill in the blank.
Rob Lee:But that's the thing that's important, especially in this social media world where it's like, I shared it. I liked it. I put it in my story. No one cares about that. Where's this little personal connection?
Rob Lee:Yes. Twelve tickets. Twelve tickets for my Sharon and my, Eventbrite. You know? So that that's that's sort of my my my 2¢ on that, but I wanna give, I wanna give you sort of the the last word, Tony, before we move into these rapid fire questions.
Rob Lee:Anything you wanna add before we move into the rapid fire?
Tony Diallo:Yeah. You know, I feel like Pixelfest is now a template for us. A very good template for Pixel Neon. I think the beautiful part is that there's a lot that can be applied to this template, and I think that's exciting. And, you know, I think we're we're looking forward to to what to what we can come up with.
Tony Diallo:And I also think, where we come up with, right now, I'm currently in England getting my master's in international business. I think that pixel fast can pixel neon can in time, certainly certainly cross cross many oceans. I think that people all over the world need outlets, especially in this day and age and, you know, just need, you know, if not us, an example. So if it's by word-of-mouth or coming to one of our events, I think we I think we've succeeded. So, really looking forward to learning more about business and how I can continue to to push this Pixel Neon forward and and everything like that.
Tony Diallo:But, yeah, really looking looking forward to the future.
Keith Dukes III:Fun fact, Tony don't need to go to school to do business. He really be doing it though. I've seen it firsthand. I was like, I can't. Don't have a mark for it.
Keith Dukes III:I bet. Appreciate it.
Rob Lee:Alright. So it's it's it's rapid fire time. Like, you know, don't overthink these. Don't overthink these questions. So, here here's the first one.
Rob Lee:What is one thing that, you know, your day doesn't start until you've done that thing? It might be, I gotta have coffee, you gotta have tea, I gotta hit the gym, I gotta go for a run. Whatever the thing is, what is the one thing for you, that you have to do before you slide the day really get started for you in earnest?
Keith Dukes III:Quick answer. Me me and Tony Tony and I had done a student athlete black student athlete association. So BSAA at UMBC when we're playing lacrosse. 1 and the one of the ways we closed out the meeting was taking a deep breath. I think it was 8 seconds in, 4 second hold, and 4 seconds out.
Keith Dukes III:So, I have taken that to heart, at my current day job. Because, you know, I'm constantly going home, eating, fall asleep, going to work, eating, going to fall asleep over. So I I breathe as soon as I get I if I get in the car, if I don't wake up or if I don't wake up. If I wake up or if I get in the car, I'll take my cumulative seconds, and I will sit and I will breathe. And I remember that time when I told other people to breathe.
Keith Dukes III:I remember that time when, you know, Tony and I were organizing another event. Just those those moments where, you know, we're holding each other accountable or I'm holding a class from full bat student athletes going through the same thing accountable. And I still feel connected to those people. So I I try to remember that time through my breathing. Probably first thing, if not in the in the way, on the way to the, the job.
Keith Dukes III:So
Rob Lee:Gotcha. It's good.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. For me, I'd probably probably music. I I go to sleep listening to music. Yeah. I guess, obviously, wake up to it.
Tony Diallo:But What'd
Keith Dukes III:you listen to, bro?
Tony Diallo:Yeah. No. I listen to a great artist called, King Kroll.
Keith Dukes III:King Krew put
Tony Diallo:me on to him. He's a UK artist. And then, you know, in the morning, nothing like playboy Cardi. Get me going. But I popped up for the day.
Tony Diallo:Help you. Head shaking. Everything like that. But, yeah. Now I thought you mentioned BSA, man.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. We were that's that's that's something we, UMBC, Black Student Athlete Alliance. Keith and I, I was I was the president, for 2 years, and Keith Keith was the vice president for for the 1st year. And then he graduated. Otherwise, he would have still been there.
Tony Diallo:But that was, like, our, I guess, our intro to working together.
Rob Lee:I like it. And I definitely not gonna have to tap back in on some king krill as I go for my, my afternoon, my evening walk.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. You know? Oh, you you
Rob Lee:see, like, there's there's some overlap. You know? Yeah.
Keith Duk:I see.
Keith Dukes III:Look up. I'm getting ribs.
Rob Lee:Oh, that's the that's the joint. That's the joint. What do you what do you say?
Keith Dukes III:What do you say?
Tony Diallo:Wow. Yeah. No, Rob. This is crazy, man. No one knows.
Tony Diallo:I'm sorry.
Keith Duk:That's the joint.
Tony Diallo:I appreciate this.
Rob Lee:So let's see. Let's see. I got I got I got one specifically for you, Tony, that I wanna ask you last, but I wanna I wanna get this next one for the both of you. So, obviously, working around film, having a film festival, there has to be a film that you both like. So I'm gonna frame it this way.
Rob Lee:What is one piece of film memorabilia that if the opportunity presented to something, it's like, yo, I'm gonna need that. I'm gonna need that in my home. I'm gonna need that in my place. Is it like, yo, I need Thor's hammer if you're a Marvel fan. I I need something in the crib for one of these movies, the real genuine article.
Keith Dukes III:Benny Rodriguez's Pia Flyer's from Sandlot.
Rob Lee:That's very specific. I love it.
Keith Duk:Yeah. It's funny. Well, I'm I'm telling you, man. I I didn't
Keith Dukes III:realize that was so I knew it was a movie, but I didn't realize it was really a film, and it couldn't be the way it made me feel growing up. Man, I'm like, damn, he really love this game. And I just wanna constantly love things that way. So when I saw this superhero of the the film, this, neighborhood hero, I'm like, what he got on?
Keith Duk:He got he got these p f flowers on,
Keith Dukes III:and he running faster than light. So I'm like, you know, if I had them in my room and and if I was writing a a short film or something or another project, I would wanna see them because I'm like, I need to capture that big man.
Tony Diallo:I I don't know, man. I'm between, like, Django's revolve one of Django's revolvers, all the guns he used, or I'm between, like, Kill Bill's katanas. Like, that's that's where we need some some sort of weaponry.
Keith Duk:He said Jango's he said with a revolver.
Rob Lee:I was waiting for you to say Jango's fluffy shirt when he blicked that dude off, but I
Tony Diallo:You know what? Maybe it's that. Maybe it's that.
Rob Lee:I was very close, right, to getting I still may get it the, Hattori Hanzo demon emblem on the sword as a tattoo. That joint for go I like to go obscure. Kobo is one of my love, we're talking 2003, 18 year old Rob Lee was like, I'm gonna need Kill Bill. I'll send you out a link. I did a review on Kill Bill for 20th anniversary not long ago.
Rob Lee:I'll see you have a link on that.
Tony Diallo:I have to yeah. Send the link. I have to check that out. No. Kill Bill is
Rob Lee:Here's here's the last one. This is this is the one that's specifically for for Tony, but, if you got anything for Keith, you could feel free to chime in. But since he's there, I might as well ask. So Yep. Since you're since you're in the the UK, my my my producer is in the UK, so I'm very curious about this.
Rob Lee:What's the best thing you've eaten since you've been there, man? Because Oh. Good things. I'm not sure. You know?
Rob Lee:No.
Tony Diallo:It's crazy. The best thing I've had so far, I've got a picture of it, and I'll turn it
Rob Lee:to the camera. You know it's good because he has a picture
Tony Diallo:of it. Thing. I had it recently, man. It's this this it's the dessert. It's called eating mess.
Keith Duk:Eton what?
Tony Diallo:I know. It's Eton, it's spelled e I think it's e a t o n, Mess, but it's named after a they say posh. So, like, a wealthy, you know, posh neighborhood in in London, a posh floor in London is called Eton. It's very popular, very expensive. And this is, like, a dish, and it's
Rob Lee:Oh, okay.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. It's like, I gotta turn the blur off. I apologize.
Keith Dukes III:Yeah. Help us out. Hey.
Tony Diallo:So it's it's That's strawberries. I think blueberries, blackberries.
Rob Lee:A little meringue. Right? Meringue.
Keith Duk:Oh, hey.
Keith Dukes III:There you go.
Tony Diallo:You got a eye, man. Oh my goodness.
Rob Lee:I'm a food snob, man. I I've I've had I've had it in Baltimore recently.
Tony Diallo:And I think, you said you've had this in Baltimore recently.
Rob Lee:Yeah. And and I I hang around the chefs. I I mean
Tony Diallo:he's seen We yeah.
Keith Duk:He's done.
Tony Diallo:I think we used to be hanging around. That's what you do keep, bro. But eating mess is the best. That's been the best thing. I'm staying away from the fish and chips, honestly.
Tony Diallo:But the the I'd say the Indian food here is very, very good. And besides that, chef Tony chef Tony is what I've been yeah. I've worked with that. So but, yeah, has been has been the best so far. And, you know, if my parents haven't been listening to beers, the beer is pretty good.
Rob Lee:That's good. That's right. And thank you. Thank you both. So that's pretty much it for the the conversation.
Rob Lee:Both of you off the hot seat. You know, we you made it off of the rapid fire questions. Then in these final wise. These final moments, there's 2 things I wanna do. 1, I wanna thank you both for coming on and sharing a bit of the story, telling us about, you know, Pixelfest and Pixel Neon.
Rob Lee:Everything has been been great and, you know, really really proud and supportive of you too. And, you know, secondly, you know, I wanna give you both the invitation to, share where folks can find, like, you individually work pretty much shameless plug. This is what we got right here. You know, hitting with the social, setting with
Keith Dukes III:the website, anything. The floor is yours. Family, friends, please follow me at 500mphdukes. I repeat, 500mphdukes on Instagram. You can also follow me at pixelneon with an a.
Keith Dukes III:I repeat, at pixelneon with an a. And, I'm working on the website. Y'all, after the reaction I got from Pixelfest, I I really want y'all to get easy access to it because I can't stand another week of 12 tickets sold. I'm making it easy and accessible for y'all. Okay.
Keith Dukes III:Y'all be right raise my blood pressure. But other than that, y'all see me on the street, you see me in the community, please say what's up because I'm really trying to connect. Other than that, spot me on socials.
Tony Diallo:Yeah. For me, Instagram at, all lowercase, tony_dialodial0_. I'm also a member of the Jamaican National Lacrosse team. We've got events coming up, next world games in Japan. Plenty of events on the women's team coming up at Jamaica Lacrosse.
Tony Diallo:Major. Yeah. Jamaica Lacrosse events coming in. Always looking for support. If you're Jamaican and you play lacrosse, pull up.
Tony Diallo:We need you. I need you. Play. And then, yeah, I'm over here in England. Gonna do what I need to do, continue to get my education, get ready to contribute into the workforce, help out Pixel Neon.
Tony Diallo:I wanna give a shout out to my my my my family. I wanna give a shout out to my mother, Tracy Duvall, who's my everything. It was the reason why I'm here, why I'm doing everything that I'm doing. My amazing strong sister, Yume Diallo, who motivates me every day and pushes me to be the best version of myself and my father who will hold me accountable if I don't. But love to my family, love to all those who support me, and look out for us because we're coming to take over.
Rob Lee:There you have it, folks. I wanna again thank Keith Dukes and Tony Diallo from Pixelfest for coming on and to talk about the festival and to talk about their work. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community. And then around your neck of the woods, You've just got to look for
Tony Diallo:it.
